So, when I started voice acting it was around the same time I started doing “traditional” drag which was in 2021, but I’d always been a “mimic” or “vocal impressionist.” Years ago when Disney was re-releasing a lot of their animated classics my family bought a lot of the VHS’ and I was TRANSFIXED on the stories with female villains. Ursula, Queen Grimhilde, Lady Tremaine, Maleficent, Cruella, etc. I found them to be so animated and larger than life, and fabulous. I wanted to be them.
When I started cosplaying, I did, but that’s dressing up and that didn’t happen until high school. So, I found comfort and quality in these wicked women. I also knew that Ursula was easily my favorite. She had attitude, depth, and a KILLER song. So, when my friends and I would “play” certain movies I would insist on being the villains. It wasn’t until I spoke that I realized I was good at impersonating these characters.
From there it was Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Catwoman, Poison Ivy, and I started to learn who voiced these characters and their respective stories. It fascinated me and I knew that someday I was going to be a voice actor. I wanted to be a voice actor in my teens and 20’s, but my family insisted I go into a career with more stability. It wouldn’t be until I was a person of a certain age that I decided the time was NOW!
The way in which I tune into a character’s voice is to listen. Pay attention to the way a character sounds, obviously it’s far more in depth than that. You have to pay attention to the pace a character speaks, the tempo, cadence, how they pronounce specific words, letters, which syllables they emphasize. It’s character studying. Also pay close attention to the physicality of the character, how the characters drawn, animated, who are the inspirations for those characters. You can also look to various actors and actresses and their speech patterns. This was how I learned to mimic and impersonate. I watched those villains with a near religious like obsession and have been impersonating them and using them in my acts for years.